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New Literary History 31.2 (2000) 295-314



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Hypersign, Hypermoney, Hypermarket:
Adam Müller's Theory of Money and Romantic Semiotics

Richard T. Gray


I

In a letter to his friend Friedrich von Gentz dated 13 September 1802, Adam Müller emphatically states: "My entire existence turns, as you know, around the notion of contrariety." 1 In the most concrete sense, this reference to the role of "Gegensatz," of contrariety, opposition, and antithesis in Müller's life refers simply to his first intellectual project, his Die Lehre vom Gegensatz (The Doctrine of Contrariety), on which he was working at the time he composed this letter. 2 In a more profound sense, however, Müller's statement points to the central position of the idea of opposition, of interactive contraries, for the entirety of his thought and his philosophy of life. This deeper meaning is confirmed in a letter to Karl Gustav von Brinkmann written almost two years later, on 10 April 1804, just prior to the publication of Müller's Lehre vom Gegensatz. In this letter Müller unequivocally asserts: "Never distinguish . . . my life from the matter of contrariety (Gegensatzes). All the phenomena of my life, the smallest and the largest alike, are directed toward it, no single thought or action strays from this sphere, all of them have their stable and eternal place within it." 3 Here Müller clearly identifies the concept of contrariety as the anchoring principle, the sun, as it were, in the solar system of his diverse intellectual pursuits. The idea of contrariety, defined as a kind of equilibrium of opposites, does indeed run like a constant leitmotif throughout the works of Adam Müller. In his anthropological thought, this concept describes the interrelation between the sexes; in his political doctrine, it defines the relationship between the aristocratic and bourgeois classes; in his theory of eloquence, it is codified in the dialogic structure that, according to Müller, informs all effective speech; 4 in his economic theory, finally, it takes the form of a fundamental reciprocity among people and between people and things. In Müller's economics, Gegensatz is transmogrified into Wechselwirkung, reciprocity or mutual interchange, the dynamic give-and-take that forms the basis of economic practice. Money, both as [End Page 295] matter and as concept, takes center stage in Müller's economic thinking because it is the highest manifestation of this reciprocal relationship. Contrariety, reciprocity, dialogue, dialectic: these are the various names with which Müller designates the primary figure of his thought, the productive interaction of distinct principles or forces. 5

Beyond identifying the fundamental structure of Müller's thought, the term Gegensatz also fittingly describes the critical reception that Müller and his writings have undergone. Indeed, Müller's statement that contrariety informs his entire existence can be read as an ironically prophetic commentary on his intellectual legacy, which is marked by radically opposing views, especially where his political stance is concerned. Even in the closely circumscribed field of German Studies, Adam Müller is scarcely a household name. Where he is known, he is often recognized only through his association with some of the major poets and thinkers of the first half of the nineteenth century, not for his own independent writings. Müller was deeply influenced by his friend Friedrich von Hardenberg, more commonly known under the pen name Novalis. 6 His respect and admiration for this leading figure of the so-called Jena Romantic Circle was so great that Müller planned, but never realized, an edition of Novalis's posthumous papers. 7 Müller was also lifelong friends with two other prominent members of the Jena Circle, the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel. 8 But he is perhaps best known as the discoverer of, and collaborator with, the late-romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, with whom Müller jointly edited the short-lived literary journal Phöbus. 9 Kleist and Müller also later collaborated on the publication of the Berliner Abendblatt; in fact...

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